Bianca-Up Close and Personal

Maxwell is the one typically getting the camera’s attention. He’s a bizarre cat that does bizarre things which inspires me to document this bizarre behavior. All the while, pretty, delicate Bianca is sitting quietly in the background, preening herself and praying to the cat-gods that Max won’t attack her.

I decided to do a little impromptu photo shoot using a lens that I normally don’t use (ProMaster Spectrum Teleconverter Lens w/ Magnification of 2x, along with a Nikkor 50MM 1:1.8D).

And Bianca happened to be in the line of fire.

I set the camera to 400 ISO and used natural daylight to play with the lens’ depth of field. I loved how detailed the image could be, along with an intense depth of field.

Her paws are so dang cute.

Bianca’s pink little nose is one of my favorite things about her.

That and the fact that she isn’t stinky, like a certain other kitty.

Stepping back a few feet, I was able to capture her powerful green eyes. Sometimes, when she looks at me, I swear she is reading my mind…

Bianca has some of the longest whiskers I have ever seen on a kitty. When she sheds one of these, I’m tempted to make an ink pen out of it.

Soon, she bored of me and went back to sleep in her favorite position-on her back, with her front and back paws curled into rabbit position and her body wedged in the corner of the couch.

I guess she’s pretty bizarre, too.

Sundried Roma Tomatoes

As you may have seen in my other posts about my garden booty, tomatoes are all the rage around here. I have been canning, freezing, making salsa, oven roasting and generally gorging myself on tomatoes.

And with plenty of tomatoes, comes experimentation that I normally wouldn’t try. I called upon the wisdom of my beautiful mother-in-law, remembering her delicious sundried tomatoes we were introduced to on our last visit.

She shared with me her recipe (which I tweaked a little here and there because I just can’t leave well enough alone) and the results were wonderfully dried Roma tomatoes, ready to grace my pizzas, pasta dishes, crackers and more.

Here’s all that you’ll need to make your very own Sundried Roma Tomatoes:
You’ll need (2) 9 x 13 casserole dishes depending on how large the Romas are
20-25 Roma Tomatoes
1/3 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
24 Garlic Cloves
Italian Seasoning
Thyme
Salt and Pepper

Put a large pot of water on to boil. Prepare an ice bath in a large bowl. Preheat the oven to 180.
Then, cut an “X” along the bottom of each Roma Tomato.

Once the water is at a full boil, drop a few tomatoes in at a time and allow them to boil for 1-2 minutes, or until the skin starts to separate from the tomatoes.

Drop the boiled tomatoes into the ice bath and let cool.

Once the tomatoes are cool to the touch, begin removing the skin by simply pulling at a corner and unwrapping your little tomato present.

PS-I keep the skins and add it to any tomato juice or seeds leftover from this recipe-which I throw into a ziplock bag and freeze. I use this concoction for stews, soups, etc.

Cut each tomato in half, lengthways and remove the seeds. (I keep the seeds for later use-see above “PS” comment.)

After de-seeding the tomatoes, place them face-down in a casserole dish. Divide the the 1/3 Cup of Extra Virgin Olive oil and pour across the tomatoes in each pan (if applicable).

Divide the 24 garlic cloves, placing 12 whole cloves in each pan. Sprinkle each pan with Italian Seasoning, Thyme, Salt and Pepper.

Roast overnight at 180 degrees for 10-12 hours, or until the tomatoes have the feel of a dried apricot.

Save the oil that remains in the pan and use for a dipping sauce.

Top toasted slices of a french baguette with the sundried roma tomaotes, feta cheese, cucumbers, black olives-or what ever your little heart desires.

These are tasty no matter how they are consumed!

Learning Patience-Funny, God

Dear Readers:
Have you ever prayed for something and have been blessed to receive an answer to that prayer-even more than you were expecting?

Well, funny thing is, I’ve been praying for patience in preparation for children.

After taking my MacBook to be repaired, God answered my prayer. In a very real way.

Upon bringing home my newly “repaired” MacBook, I realized something was different about it.

For example, this is what I’ve been staring at for close to four days now. The cheery colors swirl while my computer hums, taking its time to open a program (at least 10 minutes), change between my email and iphoto (spastic in and out minimizing and maximizing of the screens) or try to open WordPress to write a post (this has taken me almost 45 minutes to write, due to crashing, slow uploading and inadvertent deletions).

I’ve run disk utility in order to repair it several times. Everything seems to be “clean” and ready to go, but the swirl keeps on a swirlin’. I’ve tried everything to get this stinker running again.

I have no idea what the “geniuses” did to my computer. Maybe they heard from the Lord and sabotaged my computer so that I may learn patience.

Funny, God. Real Funny.

Without my MacBook…and the world did not end

WARNING: SLIGHTLY SARCASTIC POST.

Two days ago, I dropped off my MacBook at the Apple Store so that they could repair a manufacturer’s defect-free of charge. The bottom casing had been made improperly, causing it to separate from the computer. I found out there was a recall on the part and threw my hands up in the air like I just didn’t care, because for the first time, I felt like Apple was on my side.

(Apple and Sprint do not receive Christmas cards from me, if you know what I mean.)

However, the last time I dropped off my computer, somehow the “geniuses” managed to erase my entire blog and every evidence therein that I had ever had a website. Not one single shred of html coding, pictures or information could be found on my computer, on MobileMe or even on my hard drive-although I had recently backed it up. And, there was “nothing they could do.”

It was awesome.

So, even though this was a “simple fix” that shouldn’t take more than five minutes (two days), I was apprehensive about leaving my computer. I felt ridiculous acting as if they were taking my first born, but they really didn’t try to reassure me, either.

(Real conversation between me and the “genius”):

ME:”You promise you won’t have to log into my computer and access any information?”
GENIUS: “No, we can’t promise that.”
ME: “Well, aren’t you just taking the bottom casing off? Why would you need to get on my computer?”
GENIUS: “To make sure it is working properly after we repair it.”
ME: “Oh. So, you aren’t confident that the repair will be done properly?”
GENIUS: “It should be done right, but you never know.”
ME: “Hm. Will there be data lost?”
GENIUS: “Shouldn’t be, but there could be.”
ME: “Hm, again. Glad I backed it up. How long should this take?”
GENIUS: “You are first on the list, so probably tomorrow morning. But we’ll call you-if we remember.”

Awesome, once again.

I left my computer with aforementioned “genius”, said a quick prayer for its safe return and walked slowly out of the jam-packed store. I took my time, wondering if I should change my mind and rush back to grab the thing before they got their hands on it.

I decided to leave it behind, knowing they also offered to replace the entire screen and top casing, while they were at it-also free of charge. I would basically have a brand new computer if I would just leave it with them for a day (or two).

And surprisingly enough in those two days, the world did not end-in fact, it kept on turning and moving and changing. All without me at the helm. I think I learned a little bit of humility.

Imagine that. Maybe they are “geniuses”….